M 




Author 



Title 



Class 
Book 



*JJ9f9 Imprint 

fi&6Z \ 



lfi — 383W-1 SPO 



REMARKS ON EUROPE, 



RELATING TO 



EDUCATION/PEACE AND LABOR; 



AND THEIR REFERENCE 



TO THE UNITED STATES. 



NEW YORK: 

C. S. FRANCIS AND COMPANY. 
1846. 



REMARKS ON EUROPE, 



RELATING TO 



EDUCATION, PEACE AND LABOR; 



AND THEIR REFERENCE 



TO THE UNITED STATES 

t~$Jto-v{ 



NEW YORK: 

C. S. FRANCIS AND COMPANY. 

1846. 






New York, February 1, 184G. 
Note. — At the solicitation of friends, we reprint the following Remarks, which 
first appeared in the Knickerbocker of New York, in 1843, and which were writ- 
ten by the Rev. Charles Brooks, of Boston, then in Rome. It is believed that time 
has not taken away any of their applicability to the present state of Europe ; and 
it is hoped they may help to lessen in some minds the feelings of transatlantic hos- 
tility, and to strengthen in others the sentiment of hope for the nations. 






I 
I 



vs 



REMARKS ON EUROPE. 



Lettrcs sur L'inauguration du Chcmin de Fer de Strasbourg a. Bale. 
Par Michel Chevalier, pp. 124. Paris. Librarie de Charles 

GOSSELIN. 

The ingenious author of the daguerreotype thinks 
he shall succeed in rendering his plates sufficiently 
sensitive to arrest the exact features of moving bodies. 
Some power like this is needed now by the political 
and moral historian, if he would give the true form and 
impress of the times in which he lives. In Europe there 
seems nothing constant but change. The pamphlet 
named at the head of this article, written by one well 
known for his minute descriptions of the internal im- 
provements in the United States, performs for the re- 
gion of the Upper and Lower Rhine the office of the 
daguerreotype in relation to facts growing out of the 
inauguration of the rail-road between Strasbourg and 
Basle. After giving a brief history of the province of 
Alsace and its neighbors, it describes the public works 
already finished and those now in progress. In rela- 
ting the particulars of the opening of the rail-road, our 
author takes occasion to allude to the spirit of the age 
in other countries, and pays a tribute to American en- 
terprise. Next come descriptions of the fetes at Mul- 
house and Strasbourg ; and of the speeches and toasts 
at the two banquets. The religious services, always 
performed on such occasions in Europe, give our author 



■MManaHMHHi^HngMH 



4 



the opportunity of speaking of the extended influence 
of Christianity. He has written so well on some of 
the great topics now before the cabinets of Europe, 
that we wish he had on this occasion given us some- 
thing more than a thin pamphlet. It is not our inten- 
tion to make an abstract of this work ; but, as a speci- 
men of its tone and aim, we quote a few of its closing 
lines : 

' Par les chemins de fer, la sphere des relations s'agrandit. Par les che- 
mins de fer line immense fusion des interets, des idees, et des mccurs se 
prepare. C'est que les chemins de fer offrent a la civilisation un instrument 
superieur de concert et d'unite ; c'est qu'ils viennent a propos pour aider le 
genre humain a accomplir ses plus sublimes destinees. La sainte alliance 
des peuples se constituera, et l'humanite s'acheminera vers le sanctuaire de 
la fraternity universelle ; reve des philosophes, promesse des revelateurs.' * 

After an abstract of what was said by the various 
orators at the dinner-table, our author remarks : 

'Dans tous les discours ont eclate le devouement a 1'ordre comme a la 
liberte, le vceu d'une union sincere et cordiale entre les gouvernements et 
entre les peuples de l'Europe, l'amour de la paix, la necessite d'ouvrir aux 
nations a deux battants, la carricre de l'industrie, et le desir de voir le 
gouvernement Francais prendre enfin un parti a l'egard des grandes lignes 
de chemin de fer. Sous tous ces rapports, les orateurs du banquet de Mul- 
house ont ete les organes de la France et de l'Europe entiere ' t 

Speaking of the importance of religion to the labor- 
ing classes, he says : ' Unless there be an intervention 
of religion, there will spring up from the manufacturing 



* ' By rail-roads, the sphere of relations is enlarged. By means of rail-roads an 
immense fusion of interests, of ideas, and of manners, takes place. Rail-roads offer 
to civilization a superior means of concert and union. They serve to aid the hu- 
man race in fulfilling their most sublime destinies. The sacred alliance of nations 
will by them be made closer, and humanity will march onward toward the sanctuary 
of a universal brotherhood: the dream of philosophers, the prediction of prophets.' 

Free Translation : Editor. 

t ' In all these discourses, there flashed forth a devotion to order as well as to 
liberty ; a desire for a sincere and cordial union between the governments and the 
people of Europe; the necessity of laying open to the nations, by two united efforts, 
a career of industry ; and the wish of at last seeing the French government take an 
active part in extensive lines of rail-roads. In all these respects, the orators of the 
banquet of Mulhouse have been the organs of France, and of the whole of Europe.' 



population a reign of brutal anarchy and degrading 
oppression. Under the protection of religious faith, 
labor will, on the contrary, give birth to that practical 
liberty for which the people hunger. The law of 
Christ was always a law of deliverance as well as of 
discipline.' France is now in the transition state. 
Having, as a nation, thrown off the Roman Catholic 
religion and taken none other in its place, it has lost 
one of the elements of national thought and the best 
cement of social virtue. Divided, moreover, by a thou- 
sand conflicting theories, it has lost its unity of view in 
respect to moral objects. Having tried infidelity and 
found it to be nothing, many of the best minds in the 
kingdom, urged by the impulses of our common nature, 
are now beginning with anxiety to ask, ' Who will 
show us any good ? ' Would that the enterprises on 
which they enter with so much enthusiasm might help 
to bring them the elevated Christian faith of their 
neighbors : and that as their rail-roads make them 
approach so near to others, truth might make them ap- 
proach nearer to Heaven, and induce them to run with 
new speed the divine course of piety and holiness. 

The little pamphlet before us has one of the charac- 
teristics of genius ; it suggests much more than it re- 
cords. As a proof of this, we must say that its perusal 
led us into the following meditations on the present 
state of Europe ; meditations which we hope our rea- 
ders may not find uninstructive, while we assure them 
that our conclusions are drawn from official documents, 
and from facts within our personal knowledge. 



Society will not consent to come to a stand-still on 
any of the great topics of individual right or social im- 
provement. Progress is the evidence which a nation 



6 

gives of life. Government, in order to answer its 
loftiest aims, should be paternal ; with a heart that 
can feel, a head that can legislate, and a hand that can 
execute. Where sentiment, intelligence and power 
are not combined, there will be compulsion either in 
the moral, mental, or physical efforts of a people. To 
develope all the affections of the heart, all the faculties 
of the mind, and all the energies of the body, should 
be the sacred duty of government. Where this natural 
equilibrium exists, there the machine of government 
works with the least possible friction. Tried by these 
common maxims, the different states of Europe may 
be compared together, with some hope of arriving at 
just conceptions of their relative prosperity. To insti- 
tute extended comparisons is, however, not our present 
purpose ; but we would merely signalize as examples 
a few particulars which have come under our notice 
during a long sojourn in the midst of these States. 

I. Among the new movements now observed in 
Europe, we may record the efforts of the various sover- 
eigns to introduce elementary instruction among the 
people ; and also the extraordinary efforts of learned 
men to extend science and literature. 

Heretofore, kings considered the education of the 
people as a secondary object; taking rank below that 
of military tactics. Each class of citizens exhibited 
ideas and habits which had come to them by a sort of 
hereditary descent ; as some minerals are always found 
in certain strata. This movement of kings for the in- 
struction of their subjects is eminently politic. Since 
war has ceased to call for soldiers, it has become ne- 
cessary to provide for the safety of the state by enlight- 
ening the public mind and fortifying public morals. 
Hence the attention which the celebrated school sys- 



Mrf 



terns of Holland and Prussia have recently received. 
In 1806, M. Vanden-Ende, of Holland, completed his 
plan for popular instruction ; and by the establishment 
of Normal Schools commenced a course of means 
which spread good learning through the country He 
was a celestial pattern of a school-master, and by his 
own superintendence rendered his success so signal as 
to attract the attention of Frederick William the 
Third of Prussia, who sent delegates to him with the 
view of transplanting his excellent modes into the 
Prussian soil. This consequence followed ; and in 
1319 a system much resembling that of Holland was 
introduced, with the Baron Von Alteinstein at its 
head. As it came from the sovereign it was carried 
into that unquestioning execution so common in mili- 
tary despotisms, so uncommon among us. One of its 
features will show the temper of the system ; it com- 
pels the attendance at school of every child from four 
years old to fourteen. These schools are kept by 
purposely-prepared teachers ; and the result is, that in 
the whole kingdom of Prussia there is not an adult 
who has not education, intellectual and moral, sufficient 
for all the wants of the laboring classes. A maxim 
among them seems to be this ; whatever we would 
have in the State we must first introduce into the 
school-room. Thus, by providing self-government 
for every mind, they hope to save the expenses of 
an armed police, while they render the people in- 
dustrious, peaceful and happy. Germany entire has 
come into this system, modified in each State by 
peculiarities. Even Austria has made such improve- 
ment in her modes of instruction as to introduce Nor- 
mal seminaries through the empire, and her sovereign 
has issued a decree in these words : After such a time, 



IHMH*?,' 



8 

1 no male or female shall be married who cannot read, 
write, cypher, make out and cast up a common ac- 
count.' In France there is a great interest on the 
subject of primary instruction ; and recently schools 
for the people have been attached to some colleges. 
Normal schools furnish good teachers, and generous 
appropriations begin to be made. In England they 
are doing much in a different way. The fast-anchored 
isle does not like to become copyist ; and the Bo- 
rough Road School of London, though the best, is not 
so good as the best preparatory schools on the conti- 
nent. They are trying more experiments in education 
than all Europe put together, and we therefore have 
the greatest hopes, knowing the sound common sense 
of our father-land. In most of the smaller northern 
kingdoms there is a general excitation of the public 
mind on this great topic of elementary culture, and 
the good leaven of Holland will ere long leaven the 
whole lump. 

It would be strange if defects could not be discov- 
ered in the operations of systems so vast and so varied. 
That these exist, all the friends of general education 
acknowledge. Among those which have particularly 
arrested our attention are the following : Take France 
as an example, and we find that popular instruction is 
not based on morality. Religion and morality, as 
inculcated in the schools, only ' play round the head, 
they come not near the heart.' The absence of this 
fundamental sanction in such a country is seen in the 
mournful fact, that falsehood is almost a fashionable 
appendage to a human being. Violation of truth is 
found in the streets, heard in the parlor, seen on the 
stage, and proclaimed by the press. The social ills of 
which this is the cause have become national calamities. 



A sensible author, who has lately published more 
severe things on this subject than we dare to copy, 
says : ' Our systems of education are theoretic, not 
practical.' They do not meet the wants of the soul, and 
therefore they can never meet the wants of society. 

Another defect is a sort of consequence of the fore- 
going ; namely, the stimulus of emulation is applied to 
its utmost extent. Examinations for prizes are con- 
sidered of the first moment. The exhortations of the 
teacher to his pupils, from the simplest elementary 
schools to the highest university, are all based upon 
this spirit of rivalry ; and the images drawn from the 
battle-field are those most employed, the best literary 
combatant being crowned with the richest laurel and 
compared to Napoleon at Austerlitz. This begets 
among some students the liveliest feelings of envy, 
and among others the rankest spirit of hatred. We 
have seen one of the first scholars in Europe distribute 
his official kisses and oaken garland-crowns to the 
young victors in the University of France, the immense 
crowd of privileged spectators violently applauding 
meanwhile ; and we have watched with inexpressible 
sympathy the tear as it fell from the eye of one who 
for the last year had been struggling with all his force 
to gain the honor which he now saw bestowed on his 
rival. This diamond-cut-diamond system costs morally 
too much. 

We have said that there are new movements among 
men of science. Never was the desire of extending 
scientific research so strong as at this time. Every 
new fact is immediately put into the fiery alembic, 
and Nature is all but tortured to extract her secrets. 
Congresses of scientific men, gathered from different 
kingdoms, meet each year, and by invitation of some 
9, 



■■HHUHH 



10 

sovereign generally occupy a portion of the royal 
palace. The only rivalry among these philosophers is, 
to see who shall do most for the common cause of 
science. In agriculture, new modes of examining soils 
reveal new treasures in the earth; in mechanics, new 
laws of motion present points of support in the air, 
which may at length wholly change the face of com- 
mercial life ; in astronomy, extended applications of 
known laws lead to new inferences of the most aston- 
ishing magnitude ; in chemistry, new agents under 
improved modes ascertain the exact combinations of 
the atmosphere, and correct numberless mistakes in 
the theory of colors, and the action of electricity. 
In one word, Curiosity with its eagle eye and strong- 
hand, hungering and thirsting after knowledge, goes 
forth into creation, now ascending in its balloon above 
the mountains and the clouds to measure the increas- 
ing cold, and now boring its tube into the centre of 
the solid ground to measure the increasing heat ; now 
taking wing with exploring expeditions to the secret 
corners of the earth, casting its net for every differ- 
ent fish in the sea, and springing its snare upon every 
new bird in the sky, and now sitting down to toil 
day and night in the application of a true alphabet to 
the hieroglyphics of antiquity. 

II. Another new movement in European States is 
that for the maintenance of international peace. So- 
ciety, as a whole, gravitates toward peace. There 
are two reasons for this. First, they who formerly 
pursued war as their proper trade and lawful calling 
have, during the long vacation of twenty-five years, 
become engaged in commerce, manufactures, arts and 
agriculture. They have amassed wealth, and have 
educated their sons in these habits of peaceful enter- 



—^mm—m — n 



11 

prise and labor. This large and comparatively new 
class in Europe see that war will not only deprive 
them of their influence and shorten their incomes, but 
may also take from them their children. This substi- 
tution of the spirit of trade for the spirit of war, this 
conversion of swords into ploughshares, and spears 
into pruning-hooks, tends every where toward pacific 
policy. It has had the effect of drawing together 
nations heretofore alienated. To carry on the com- 
merce and arts of peace, rail-roads, canals, and steam- 
boats have been introduced, thus bringing distant 
kindoms so near together, that their several markets 
seem not unlike the different shops of the same great 
city. These circumstances again modify in their turn 
the current principles of exchange, and compel govern- 
ments to adopt a general scale of duties, which be- 
comes an additional guaranty for peace. This fusion 
of interests is peculiarly a bond of union between 
those states whose juxta-position was anciently the 
chief cause of rupture. To mention one example ; 
the German confederation and their new system of 
custom-houses. This is a social movement entirely 
novel in Europe, and it promises to have imitators, for 
already the question of removing the custom-houses of 
France to the outer borders of Belgium has been dis- 
cussed in both kingdoms, and the confirmation it 
would give to the principles of peace is one of the 
great arguments urged for its adoption. This measure, 
it is said, originated with the King of the French, 
whose efforts to secure tranquillity to Europe has ob- 
tained for him the title of the Napoleon of Peace. 

Europe, as a whole, wishes peace ; wishes to adopt 
common principles, and march at the head of modern 
civilization. Leaving each state its proper individu- 



12 

ality, it would encourage between them all a free 
interchange of moral sentiments, of scientific discov- 
eries, and industrial products. Thus extended, wars 
become every day less probable, as the interests of the 
people become more and more an element in the cal- 
culations of kings. The ancient baron had not to ask 
his serfs if he should go to battle with his neighbor ; 
but modern kings, before they enter on this perilous 
work, must ask permission of the bankers, merchants, 
manufacturers, and agriculturists. The people begin 
to apprehend that in this game of war, at which kings 
play, the blood and treasure come eventually out of 
them, and they therefore hold their hand on the sword 
to keep it in its scabbard. There has arisen within 
the last twenty-five years a powerful aristocracy of 
merchants, under such a new form as to change mate- 
rially the order of things. Formerly politics decided 
trade, now trade decides politics. The time is not 
far distant, when the Premier may lose office by oppos- 
ing the merchant princes. The spindles of the cotton 
factory have vanquished the army. In one word ; it 
is evident that the higher interests of human life are 
superseding the claims of royal ambition and party 
politics, and that henceforth the commercial relations 
and general welfare of different communities will give 
to a war between them the appearance of a duel 
between brothers. 

The second reason why European states will 
maintain international peace is, that each sovereign 
has now as much as he can do to keep his own 
people from engaging in parliamentary reforms and 
political revolutions. We speak from knowledge when 
we say, that in every kingdom of Europe there are 
numbers of intelligent and patriotic citizens, who, 



13 

though opposed to collision with foreign nations, are 
ready for a struggle with their own government. 
Their rallying word is not revolution but reform. 
They have come to the apprehension of their inalien- 
able rights, and they mean to assert them, ' peacefully 
if they can, forcibly if they must.' The kings see 
that war lifts this whole class of citizens into perilous 
consequence, and opens to them the very best occa- 
sions for presenting their claims. This is the true 
state of things ; and it constantly reminds us of those 
earlier times when the feeble remains of Roman civili- 
zation went out from the communal liberties of the 
middle ages. A few sparks, preserved under the 
ashes of revolution, sufficed then to rekindle the flame 
of progress, giving it a force heretofore unknown. 
The cities and villages which, fatigued with feudal 
domination, rose to resist oppression, obeyed a natural 
impulse, and gave emphasis to the social tendencies of 
the epoch. They waited long and patiently for the 
signal of regeneration, and when it sounded, all were 
girt and road-ready for the movement. Republics 
were formed in Italy and meridian Gaul, commercial 
leagues in Germany, and communes in France. So 
also, Parma and Plaisance, Toulouse and Marseilles, 
Hamburg and Lubec, Cam bray and LeMons, Laon and 
Amiens, declared themselves ready for emancipation ; 
the electric commotion seized the multitude at once, 
and the insurrectional idea propagated itself through 
every part of Europe. A process not unlike this, 
having political reform for its object, is at this hour 
travelling over the same route; and from what we 
often read and know of its aims, we should suppose 
that its patrons considered the noble efforts of the 
mass in throwing off feudal tyranny but as an eloquent 



14 

preface to the epic they would prepare for the nine- 
teenth century. 

In proof of all this, mark the restlessness of the peo- 
ple in every kingdom of Europe ! How this restless- 
ness showed itself even during the troubles in the 
Ottoman empire ; an empire which is for a moment 
secure only because so many stand ready to devour it ; 
and which is rent with religious divisions and popular 
commotions ! In Italy the same fact meets us every 
where. Crumbled into little dominions, which are 
kept at variance to prevent amalgamation, she has 
exiles in every quarter of the globe, who sympathize 
with the many friends of reform they have left at home. 
Their common saying we have often heard : ' We like 
our French conquerors better than our Austrian pro- 
tectors.' Passing over the Alps, even republican 
Switzerland has recently shown the spirit of her neigh- 
bors in suppressing the convents of Argovie. The 
light of her example, set on a hill, cannot be hid. If 
Russia and Austria bring their iron laws to bear with a 
well adjusted pressure, and preserve with few inter- 
ruptions their internal quiet, this is not so true of their 
friend Prussia, whose last king had a quarrel with the 
Pope, in which five millions of his subjects took part 
against him ; and whose present sovereign finds it 
extremely difficult to evade the urgent petitions of his 
subjects for new constitutions, and for an extension of 
municipal privileges. An important concession lately 
made is in an order given by him to his Minister of 
State, commanding him to allow the censors of the 
press ' all the liberty of free publication which can in 
any manner be wise or right.' Most of the small 
states of Germany have obtained so nearly what they 
want, that their rulers have become the servants of the 






15 

people. To show exactly what this last remark means, 
we need only look at Hanover, whose rash and obsti- 
nate king is preparing for himself every form of suffer- 
ing by his senseless opposition to the will of his people. 
They speak the language of the masses in Europe, 
when, in their address to His Majesty, they tell him 
they ' will not surrender those natural rights which the 
nineteenth century guaranties to citizens.' In their 
sister-realm, England, the people have freedom, but 
want bread ; and the peculiar legislation of that coun- 
try has armed Ireland and the poor with a terrible 
hostility to the existing institutions. The frequent 
meetings of reformers alarm the civil authorities, and 
the principles of the Chartists have made such progress, 
as encourages reformers to hope that by new alliances 
they shall be able, before many years, to control the 
elections. It is well known that this sad condition of 
things constituted one of the strongest objections to a 
war with the United States. Any signal failure of the 
crops in Great Britain, or any wide war in Europe, 
must have the immediate effect either to modify or 
abolish their corn laws; and when this is done it will 
be a step of half a century. The manufacturing cities 
will one day speak with emphasis. France is always 
in a state of political inflammation ; always dreaming 
of something better ; always gazing at an unreached 
paradise. Uneasiness there is reduced to a science ; 
and the secret societies which exist through the whole 
length and breadth of the land, give it embodiment and 
form in their murderous attacks on the life of the king 
and his sons, whenever favoring opportunities occur. 
It is very evident that the revolutionary lava, which was 
thrown up from the Parisian volcano in 1 830, is not yet 
wholly cooled. There are many standing topics of 



16 

complaint. Out of thirty-four millions of inhabitants, 
there are but two hundred thousand electors, and hall 
of these are in some manner connected with the go- 
vernment. The resolution of the people to extend the 
electoral franchise cannot be frustrated after the death 
of the present king. Spain at this moment presents a 
moving example of the state of things above alluded 
to ; and is of itself sufficient to prove the position we 
have taken. With no wish to break the peace with 
other nations, Spaniards seem to have none to keep it 
among themselves. Civil revolutions succeed by a 
kind of fixed scale, or geometrical series. Reform is 
their watch-word, a word stereotyped ten years ago 
by them. The people act responsive to the great 
European pulsation ; and to show, in concluding these 
remarks, what that is, we will give a few facts as ex- 
amples. The Cortes of Madrid, a few months since, 
voted to report the following bill for the sale of the 
property of the Catholic clergy in Spain. ' Article I. 
All the property of the secular clergy shall be national. 
Article II. The annual revenues of the Catholic church 
derived from seats, etc. shall be national. Article III. 
All church property shall be sold. Article IV. All said 
revenues shall be placed in the hands of the govern- 
ment.' In November last, we found the following 
account in a Madrid paper : ' Last week the Grand 
Staff of the garrison of Madrid offered a splendid ban- 
quet to the Grand Staff of the National Guards of the 
city. In this meeting were united the elite of both of 
these most respectable corps. At the dessert, a lieu- 
tenant of the National Guards offered the following 
toast : ' The happy day when we shall drink the blood 
of tyrants, as we drink the liquor from this cup.' 
Another gentleman gave this : ' Should the Pope ex- 



17 

communicate the Duke de la Victoire, let Spain in- 
stantly shake off the yoke of the court of Rome.' 
Another gave this: 'The speedy advent of pure de- 
mocracy.' Another pertained to the King of the 
French, who was supposed to have favored Queen 
Christine's cause : « May the Supreme Being soon 
glorify the King of the Barricades.' There were 
many more in like strain. After this we ask if the 
case be not made out, that international wars in Eu- 
rope are not at present improbable, from the fact that 
kings have their hands more than full in keeping their 
people quiet? They need all their armies for the 
repose of their capitals and large cities. 

To these reasons for the maintenance of interna- 
tional peace in the old world, may be added the debts, 
and we may almost say, the bankruptcy of the leading 
powers. They cannot pay, and the debts hang as 
millstones round the productive industry of the coun- 
try. These debts remaining undiminished through a 
quarter of a century of peace and prosperity have 
therefore become a new element in casting the horo- 
scope of nations. With some it brings matters to this 
unexpected issue, namely, to ask if the debts can be 
paid, or must they be washed out ivith a sponge ? Eng- 
land may be the last to repudiate by such an alterna- 
tive ; for she is marching with Atlean strength to 
bolder heights of physical and moral power than she 
has ever known ; yet, to show her utter inability of 
paying her debt we only need say, that if it were a 
debt owed by the whole world it would require every 
human being on the face of the earth to pay four dol- 
lars and fifty-four cents before it could be liquidated ! 
Truth and history require us here to add, that how- 
ever much the straightened condition of European 
3 



mm* 



18 

nations may be a source of complaint in time of peace, 
it seems all forgotten in a moment, so soon as a real 
cause of war is thought to present itself. Touch but the 
magazine of national pride, and immediately, as by ex- 
plosion, streams of gold issue forth from every opening. 
There may be adduced yet another reason for the 
maintenance of international peace in Europe; namely, 
the greater infusion of Christian sentiments into diplo- 
matic affairs. There are several among the most 
distinguished philosophers in the old world, who are 
penetrated with the great moral argument against 
war, and who strongly advocate the system of arbitra- 
tion. The King of the French is among this number. 
Ardent philanthropists already see the rainbow of 
peace spanning the skirts of the departing storm. 
Would that it were so. The advance of moral science 
and Christian ideas, added to the efforts of Peace So- 
cieties, have done much with several German states. 
Christianity has produced an era of light which may 
lead to the higher era of love. The maxim, that war 
is repugnant to the spirit of the gospel, is beginning to 
be received ; and before our children shall have grown 
old, the Peace Question will be the one most eagerly 
discussed in Christendom. We divine that it is 
through this question that Christianity will find admit- 
tance to India, China, and even to Mahomedan coun- 
tries. It will aim to fuse all nations into one great 
brotherhood of love ; allowing each to retain its dis- 
tinctive political forms. But the time is not yet ; and 
we fear that the plain truth on this head, as applied to 
Europe, may be illustrated by a fact which took place 
near where we once lived. A straight Quaker, of 
choleric temperament, was insulted by a market-man 
near his door. He rushed with fury on his enemy. 



19 

His good wife, hearing the noise of the conflict, has- 
tened to the spot, threw herself between the comba- 
tants, exclaiming : 'John, stop! stop! remember your 
religion.' ' What's that to me when I 'm mad ? ' was 
John's reply. 

III. The last new movement that we would mention 
pertains to labor. We do not mean the labor bestowed 
on rail-roads, canals and public buildings; but we see 
in Europe a question touching the laboring classes, 
which grows every day of deeper import. The in- 
crease of population in comparison with the extent of 
territory is so great, that some begin to calculate how 
long it will be before the last acre of land will become 
indispensable to human subsistence. In many places 
the population is already so dense, and the markets so 
high, that the poor are forced to live on potatoes, bread, 
and the coarsest food. The merchants and landholders 
have become the successors of the ancient barons, and 
with this difference, that the barons took care of their 
laborers ; they cherished the young, shielded the old, 
and nursed the sick ; while the modern landholder 
does none of these things to his hired laborer. He 
employs a man or woman while they are in sound 
health and in full strength ; and at the end of the day, 
month or year, dismisses them for ever to the bleak 
mercy of the world. The accumulation of the truly 
indigent in the old world is frightful. The houses of 
relief are thronged, and thousands must be rejected. 
The funds of charitable associations are not half suffi- 
cient for the demand, and the consequence is extreme 
suffering and oftentimes death. The poorer the labor- 
ing classes become, the poorer they may become ; for 
they grow less independent, and less able to resist the 
oppressions they meet in their employers. It is now 



20 

an established fact, that in proportion as the merchants, 
manufacturers, and landholders have become rich, their 
laborers have become poor. What then must be the 
actual state and social tendency of a country where 
this fact exists ? Looking at the matter narrowly, we 
find it to be this ; that a new relationship has grown 
up between the poorer classes among themselves, and 
also between the rich among themselves. They have 
both, so to speak, become clannish ; and what is the 
nature of these alliances ? They are, on the one hand, 
alliances of the rich to sustain each other against the 
poor; and on the other hand, alliances of the poor 
against the extortions of the rich. The natural conse- 
quence of this state of things is a well-settled hostility 
between the parties. Thus situated at this hour, the 
poor becoming more poor and the rich more rich, the 
new question has been started, where shall a radical 
change of relationships between the parties begin ? 
This is one of the deepest questions of domestic policy 
now before the statesmen and philanthropists of Europe; 
and it somewhat resembles that concerning the in- 
crease of slaves in the United States. No solution has 
yet been fixed upon ; although many learned commis- 
sioners have had the subject under examination ; and 
to any plan it will be easy to oppose serious objections, 
for this simple reason, that any reforms, which justice 
and humanity may ask, will be opposed to the legal 
statutes and hereditary logic which an artificial state 
of society has created and sanctioned. 

We feel ourselves among the last who should decide 
where so many are in doubt; but as foreigners, we 
hope to be pardoned in bringing without pretension 
our modest stone, while we leave to others the plan 
and erection of the edifice. If the following hints 



21 

provoke discussion, their whole aim will be answered. 
It will be neither advisable nor just to divide the pro- 
perty of the community in order to feed the poor. This 
would be nothing more nor less than universal plunder, 
ending in universal ruin. Equally impolitic would it 
be to impose an income tax on the rich in order to 
erect asylums where the poor could be sustained. 
What then can be done ? We answer, employ the poor. 
But who shall employ them ? Shall we compel you or 
your neighbor to employ laborers, when you have no 
work to be done ? Such a tax you would object to ; 
but we must tax you in another way ; and here we 
would make our suggestions. 

First. We would have the governments of Europe 
undertake great works of internal improvement, such 
as the erection of public edifices, the digging of canals, 
and the opening of rail-roads ; and for all these the rich 
must pay. 

Second. The governments may institute agricul- 
tural establishments in different parts of the country, 
where all may labor who cannot find employment 
elsewhere. There is not a kingdom in Europe where 
such uncultivated lands do not exist. This plan would 
bring these lands into productiveness, and lessen the 
prices of provisions; for it is not the richest soils which 
now sustain the greatest population, but rather those 
which have had their natural resources most fully 
developed. 

Third. Where landholders own the soil in per- 
petuity they must be obliged to submit it to cultiva- 
tion at prices established by law. This extreme case 
will not, we presume, soon happen ; but when the 
time comes that human beings are suffering for want 
of food, no statutes must continue to exist which say 



that they shall starve. This is that last necessity 
which knows no law. A government has no right to 
legislate death to its innocent citizens. 

Fourth. There must be new bonds of union be- 
tween masters and laborers. The infinite distance at 
which laborers are kept from their employers, in these 
countries, is productive of two evils to the master. 
First, to his interest, because the laborer will do as 
little as he can for his wages, and feel no interest to 
do that little well. Secondly, to his security ; for 
when the strikes and lawless tumults break out, they 
always endanger his peace and often his life. The 
need of the application of the Christian standard to 
this relationship of master and servant cannot be over- 
stated. We see it existing in some places, and it is 
productive of almost an entire change in the character 
and condition of the poor. 

Fifth. The standing armies of Europe should be 
employed in labor. These armies, in the beginning 
of 1840, amounted to two and a half millions; now, 
in the beginning of 1842, they are nearly double that 
number. Most of the soldiers have trades ; let each 
one be obliged to work when not on military duty. 
Take the best example in Europe, the French army. 
There are three hundred thousand men now under 
arms daily, and all doing nothing. They are able and 
willing to work, and could be employed in agriculture, 
either in France or Algiers. Let the government but 
strike this rock of national industry, and it would pour 
forth streams to gladden the whole land. The law 
now requires each young man to spend in the stand- 
ing army eight years, entering at the age of twenty- 
one. Thus the best eight years of his life are spent in 
utter listlessness and inanity ; and when he returns to 



23 

private life he finds himself unfitted by habits and 
tastes for proper and severe duty. Let these three 
hundred thousand consumers be turned into producers, 
and a change would go over the face of society which 
would make the poor man leap for joy, since it would 
reduce prices so as to make him able to support him- 
self. The King of Prussia has let the horses of his 
army to the farmers for labor, on the condition that 
they be ready to return them at a moment's warning. 
We hope this small beginning may lead to farther ap- 
plications of the principle. 

That something must be done, every provident man 
admits. M. Thiers, on the fourth of March, 1840, 
then at the head of the French cabinet, said from the 
tribune : 'Gentlemen, it will not suffice at this day to 
be content with an order purely material ; we must 
have a moral order ; that is, a union of minds tending 
to a common end. To unite all minds in the promo- 
tion of this common end is the great mission now 
imposed on government. The hour has come to com- 
prehend it. Let us give our hands to this demanded 
renovation.' These words contain truths which many 
in Europe are slow to understand. But proofs gather 
in fearful crowds. Pauperism is a deep plague-spot 
on the surface of the body, and ignorance a deeper 
plague-spot in the depths of the mind, and both are 
growing into causes of revolution and crime. Hunger 
when fierce is eagle-eyed ; and Ignorance when it gets 
an idea, acts upon it in terrible obstinacy. Poverty 
among the poor, increasing as wealth does among the 
rich, has given rise to a popular logic which masters 
that of the forum. What said the workmen at Man- 
chester, in England, in their recent call for higher 
wages? 'How happens it that we, who produce every 



24 

thing, have nothing ? ' And what was the motto on 
the flag of the same class of persons at Lyons, in 
France, on a similar and recent occasion ? ' To live 
workings or die fighting ! ' Workmen in Europe are 
willing to brave iron, fire and fatigue, but they must 
have bread ! 

It is not in England and France alone that pauper- 
ism exists. A recent statement says, that in Belgium 
one sixth of the population are poor, and most of these 
in extreme want. In Holland there are twelve paupers 
to every hundred inhabitants. In Prussia, since 1815, 
the number of the poor has quadrupled. In Austria 
the numbers are rapidly increasing. In the Lombardo- 
Venetian kingdom the official statements are appall- 
ing, it being said of Venice that half its inhabitants 
are destitute. In Germany the advance of pauperism 
is the motive which drives so many of its citizens to 
our country. At Copenhagen the poor tax has just 
doubled within the last ten years. At Stockholm the 
increase of paupers, taking the last hundred years, is 
one to fifteen. In some of the cantons of Switzerland 
the peasants have renounced their rights of citizenship, 
in order to escape the payment of the enormous poor- 
rates. The same facts are officially stated of Pied- 
mont, Italy, Spain, and Portugal ; and are corrobora- 
ted by the bandits who levy contributions on travellers, 
and sometimes on villages. Take individual cities, 
and the same inference follows. Paris, for example, 
has eighty thousand paupers registered at its Bureau 
of Beneficence ; and sixty thousand more are said to 
live on the products of crime. The city of Lisle has 
twenty-five thousand poor among seventy thousand 
inhabitants. Mentz, Strasbourg, Lyons, Bordeaux, 
are almost devoured by this lamentable evil. Russia 



25 

alone seems to be exempt, and this is owing to the 
peculiar relation in which the servant stands to his 
master. We could cite pages more of official docu- 
ments ; but these are sufficient to justify our remark 
that something must be done ; and though the people 
are willing to wait with angel patience, jet they 
cannot wait for ever ; and and if governments ulti- 
mately refuse to give to the great humanity a free and 
equal chance of action and enjoyment, they may be 
assured that sinister complots, organized in darkness 
under ground, will be ready at the signal to explode 
in earthquake convulsions. Although the sovereigns 
of Europe see all this, yet we fear they will do, as 
timid men are apt to do, resort to temporary expe- 
dients. This will be a misfortune to the world ; for 
when a machine is old and worn, and works badly, it 
is not sufficient to put here and there a screw, a pivot, 
or a wheel ; these partial repairs do not remedy the 
general imperfection of the thing ; it is still an old 
machine, and the smallest matter throws it into its 
former confusion. 

After enumerating the new movements now observed 
in Europe on the subjects of education, peace, and 
labor, it may be asked how these movements affect 
a population so heterogeneous ? That the effects are 
very various is most true ; and we think they may be 
described by dividing society into three classes : 

First ; they who represent The Past. This class 
is composed of the tories of England, the legitimists 
of France, the barons of Germany, the nobles of Spain, 
and the clergy of all these countries. They keep 
their eye on the summit of the social pyramid, a sum- 
mit which the lightnings have struck and blackened. 
They sincerely believe that the ills which now afflict 
4 



26 

society arise mainly from neglect of the ancient ideas. 
They are therefore particularly opposed to modern 
innovations. They point to former prosperity, when 
the possessions of the rich were not assailed by vulgar 
cupidity, and when noble prerogatives were not rashly 
questioned by parliamentary reformers. They love 
to frequent the ancient castles, and count their her- 
aldic armory, and muse on the good old days of tilts 
and tournaments. We half pardon this mistake of 
theirs, when we remember that the past was the sea- 
son of their joy, their action and their glory. That 
season has gone by. Their souvenirs are those 
belonging to age. The sun has passed its meridian, 
the shades of declining day begin to gather in the 
forests, and soon they will be called to watch the last 
lingering rays. Shall we blame them that they are 
not young ? Shall we even blame them that they 
have so little sympathy with the rising generation ? 
The old man must have great vitality to keep up with 
the athletic steps of youth. 

Second ; they who represent The Present. These 
are the stationary adults of the social order. They 
covet not change. They are the conservatives in all 
these states ; the rich citizens of France, the Chris- 
tinos of Spain, the whigs of England, the ministers of 
all cabinets, and the rich of every country. These 
are the men whose points are made, whose wealth is 
gained, whose rank is acknowledged ; and who, per- 
suaded that they have marched long and far enough, 
wish now to sit down in the calm enjoyment of the 
results of their toil. To them the sun is in its zenith, 
and shielded from its burning rays, they sit in the cool 
bowers of their prosperity, tasting the sweet fruits 
which hang on the branches within reach, listening to 



27 



the mingled music of birds and the murmur of foun- 
tains, gazing on extended landscapes, made doubly 
beautiful by the union of nature and art ; and thus, 
with every sense regaled, they add still to these out- 
ward charms the refinements of taste, the society of 
the fashionable, and the flattery of dependents. Very 
difficult is it to persuade them, thus environed by all 
that they love, to quit these luxurious retreats, and go 
forth to new labors. They are satisfied with the 
present, and are deaf to all appeals for radical altera- 
tion. They feel secure, and therefore care the less 
for those who do not. They shut their door against 
all poetic schemers, and leave the young soldiers in 
life's campaign to bivouac without, on the sands of 
the desert, exposed to the burning simoom, or the 
more burning sun. 

Third ; They who represent The Future. These 
are the vigorous youth of the nations, whose patri- 
mony is in the rich Hereafter. They are by far the 
most numerous, and have ' thoughts that breathe, and 
words that burn.' This party is very differently con- 
stituted from the two preceding. While they com- 
prehend themselves, know what they prefer, and 
know how to sustain their pretensions, this third class 
is by no means homogeneous. It is much divided, and 
therefore leaves the conservatives to seize power. 
They are all agreed upon one point, and that is 
progress. But though all wish to march, they are in 
complete discord about the way they should take. 
They wish to reform old abuses, remodel ancient 
institutions, and erect a system which shall meet the 
wants of the age ; but so soon as they descend to the 
details of operation, they separate into manifold par- 
ties, and then use against each other the force which 



28 

should be reserved for a common cause. One party, 
as in Prussia, wants a constitution ; another, as in 
Hungary, asks a complete disbanding of the army ; 
another, as in Hanover, demands the restoration of 
all lost privileges ; another, as in Italy, wants the 
introduction of newspapers ; another, as in France, 
calls loudly for universal suffrage ; another, as in Eng- 
land, claims the admission of dissenters to the two 
national universities ; and another, as in Spain, would 
establish a republic. In every country they call for a 
melioration of imposts, extended commercial facili- 
ties, protection against monopoly, and the right of 
being heard. This is the party which makes the stir 
in Europe ; the party that does so many good and so 
many bad things ; and it is its existence and action 
which constitute one of the new phases of the old 
world on which we have remarked. It is this party 
which is growing with uncounted force, and will at 
some future day shape the destinies of that continent. 
Their great central idea of progress strengthens and 
expands in the common mind every time it is attack- 
ed. It will at length bring them together and give 
them a leader, who, like James Otis or Patrick 
Henry, will know how to strike for them the grand key- 
note, and anon they will be ready to join all voices 
in harmony. Divided now into many sects and 
opposing schools, little can be inferred with certainty 
of their immediate action. They would have us be- 
lieve that society is very near its next climacteric ; 
but we venture to say they must wait awhile before 
they begin to chant their hallelujahs. Some insects 
must creep a long time before they get wings. It is 
true that in every legislature they have their repre- 
sentatives, like the great Arago and Odilon Barrot ; 



29 

and the journals which speak their sentiments have 
the widest circulation, and have scattered to the right 
and left ideas so penetrating and so just, that cabinet 
councils have advised a severer censorship of the 
press. But it is also true that some journals, claim- 
ing to belong to the class of which we speak, do any 
thing but favor the cause of good. Unfortunately for 
freedom and virtue, there exists in Europe a swarm of 
empty and hungry journalists and pamphleteers, crea- 
tures as ravenous as the beasts of the desert, and en- 
dowed with just about as much reason as Heaven gives 
an ape. They seem the very impersonation of evil — 
civil, social, and religious. Without principle, without 
faith, and without fear, they deluge some places with 
their infamous publications, advocating a partition of 
goods, universal suffrage, a great social communion, 
and all the kindred topics. Their tongues would set 
on fire the course of nature, and seem themselves set on 
fire of hell. They are despised by all sound thinkers 
and genuine patriots. The best journals which advo- 
cate progress are of a very different character. They 
seem anxious to find the causes of existing evils, and 
then to apply with wise caution the true remedies. 
With their principles and temper we should generally 
accord, though some of their views we deem unsound. 
For example, they sum up their complaints thus : 
' The people suffer — they are in want ; bread is 
dear — work fails; let us have our political rights.' 
We apprehend that the remedy here demanded would 
not work the miracle here assigned to it. If the 
people should be clothed with these political rights 
to-day, and should be called to exercise them by 
dropping a ball into the electoral or legislative urn, 
and by taking their seats on the bench of grand 



30 

jurors, there would not, we think, be a shower of 
two-penny loaves to-morrow morning. 

Some good and intelligent men, disciples of the 
generous Lafayette, maintain in private that the 
establishment of republics would be a cure for all 
political evils. We cannot but think they also would 
be disappointed in this expedient. Look at the differ- 
ences between our country and the old world. A 
republican is an intelligent, virtuous, self-governing 
man, who has learned the art of choosing rulers and 
making laws. This trade of politics was commenced 
by him when ten or twelve years of age, and when 
arrived at twenty-one, he had gone through a quiet 
but powerful system of training, which, while it had 
inspired him with the love of liberty, had also taught 
him the supreme value of order and justice. He 
therefore came prepared for the exercise of his civil 
rights. There is no such education for the masses in 
Europe. They who have resided there will feel the 
force of this statement. The only fit way of making 
genuine republicans in any country is, to begin their 
training in the school-house and end it in the church. 
To develope all the powers of man in their natural 
order, proper time and due proportion is the shortest 
direction for creating Christian freeman. Now look 
at Europe. An almanac for 1841 lies before us, on 
whose outside cover are quoted the words of a cabinet 
minister : ' Fifteen millions of Frenchmen do not learn 
except from almanacs the destinies of Europe, the 
laws of their country, the progress of science, arts, and 
industry.' The late official report in that country 
states that ' about one half of all the inhabitants of 
France can neither read nor write.' An edict sent 
forth by the King of the French in November last 



31 

begins thus : * Seeing that in many of the chief places 
of the departments where there are six thousand inha- 
bitants, there exists no school for primary instruction ; 
therefore ordered, etc' As that country has once 
been a republic, and is now jealously watched by all 
the kings of Europe on account of its political aber- 
rations, it may be interesting to state, that official 
documents place France, in respect to its patronage 
of elementary instruction, the eighteenth on the list 
of forty-seven states. Our country is placed first in 
this regard ; then come Prussia, Holland, Austria, the 
states of the German confederation, Norway, Scotland, 
Belgium and England. In France there is one pupil 
to every fifteen inhabitants ; in the Canton of Zurich 
one to every five ; and in the last census it was ascer- 
tained that our Connecticut contained but one adult 
who could neither read nor write ! A jury of twelve 
men was collected last summer in a country village in 
England on some emergency, and when called upon 
to sign their names, the Leeds paper says, ' there was 
but one who could write ! ' Few of our countrymen 
who reside in Europe will say that the people there 
are prepared for a republican form of government ; 
and therefore we must think that this third class, of 
whom we are speaking, by mistaking their wishes for 
principles and experience, have been led to a violence 
of action which has put off the day of those political 
reforms and social ameliorations which they so ear- 
nestly and so honestly desire. 

In closing this article, it may be timely to draw a 
few inferences from the state of Europe as above 
described. What we have to say in this regard may 
be included in answers to these two questions : 
First ; What have the United States taught Europe ? 



32 

Secondly ; What have the United States to fear from 
Europe ? 

First : What have the United States taught Eu- 
rope ? One of the first scholars in France recently 
said to us : ' The success of your government frightens 
our King, and your Puritanism frightens our Pope.' 
This is the briefest answer to the above question. 
The ideas of association and organization against 
hereditary privileges have made rapid strides within 
the last ten years ; and the times hang out signals at 
which kings have reason to be frightened. The 
capacity of man for self-government had been doubted, 
had been positively denied, and is still denied by vast 
numbers. Men of distinguished ability have been 
sent, by consent of European governments, to explore 
our institutions, in order to write books against our 
republican theories. These books have had some in- 
fluence with the conservatives, but have failed of their 
aim with the masses ; for the people have held them 
up in one hand, while with the other they have point- 
ed to our unparalleled success in commerce, arts, 
manufactures, agriculture, etc. It is common to hear 
official men say that ' the example of the United States 
has no influence in Europe ; ' this very mention of the 
subject proving of itself the refutation of the state- 
ment. The truth is, that our country is having an 
immense influence in Europe (always bating one 
social parenthesis) ; and if we had conducted our 
moneyed institutions so as to have kept our engage- 
ments with foreign creditors, there would have been 
within twenty years an emphasis in our national cha- 
racter and position, which would have astonished 
even ourselves. We have now long to wait for the 
renewal of this era. Nevertheless we still preach to 



33 



the nations from that grand, majestic text of human- 
ity, All men are born free and equal ; > and our coun- 
try says to every citizen of a monarchy, whether high 
or low, what the immortal Dante said so well • ?I 
repulse as odious the privileges of birth ; there is but 
one nobility, and that comes from talents and virtue ■ ' 
and to kings it says what the great Thomas Aquinas 
said : litles of nobility originate in human pride and 
injustice. A government ceases to be legitimate 
when it becomes despotic ; that is, when it prefers the 
personal satisfaction of the prince to the happiness of 
the people > The steady assertion of any great prin- 
ciple finally recommends it to the world. This is 
verified m the concessions so unwillingly made to our 
national character by most of the foreign journals. 
lake a very recent example. The Journal des 
Uebats, the ablest newspaper in Europe, speaking of 
our astonishing growth and indomitable perseverance 
said that in a moment of national danger our different 
States would unite as one man; and then adds: < it 
is true beyond any doubt that the American Union 
centralized would become the first maritime power 
of the world ; and that old England will ere long 
be obliged to strike her flag before her children on the 
other side of the Atlantic' We wish no collision with 
our mother country; we only say that the seeds of 
peace and freedom which our republic is sowing 
broad-cast among the nations of Europe will not be 
lost The plants may be regarded as exotics for a 
while, and be cherished only by the intelligent as 
curiosities ; yet at last, their virtues will be discover- 
ed, and then all men will be anxious to have them in 
their fields. 

Another truth which Europe is receiving from our 

f 



34 

country, regards the institution of labor. Our nation 
belongs emphatically to the working-men's party. 
Labor is with us, the lever that moves the world. 
Ours was the mission of labor from the first. No one 
by birth or riches is excluded from this category. 
Every thing is put in requisition ; head and hands, 
beast and earth, wood and mineral. But it is the 
labor of freedom, as well as the freedom of labor. 
Every one has his natural chance, without let or 
hindrance. In Europe how different ! Look at 
Russia with the body of a lion and the head of a 
man, her feet yet having for their base the thirteenth 
century, while her head is in the nineteenth ; her 
people are part and parcel of her soil, and are taught 
only one lesson, and that is, to work, not for them- 
selves, but for their masters. The process there re- 
minds us of that pursued by the peasant of our Western 
States with regard to wild bees. When these busy 
insects have toiled away the whole summer in storing 
a hollow tree with their winter's food, he goes and 
quietly ' relieves ' them of most of their treasure, 
granting them only wherewith to starve through the 
season. But take a milder case ; say in Austria, or 
even in England. A boy born in poverty can seldom 
choose his trade or profession. His taste is not the 
first thing to be consulted ; because this taste might 
fix on pursuits already secured to privileged children, 
or bound down by hereditary prescription. The field 
of labor in head or hand which a boy might prefer, is 
enclosed, and has a guarded door, and no one can 
enter but under the secret countersign. The poor 
boy is not admitted, unless he has some extraordinary 
talent which his masters can turn to their profit. We 
have heard of boys who have watched for years with- 



35 

out being able to catch even a stray glance of power- 
ful patronage. Our countrymen have no idea of this 
state of things. To live in a certain street, to work 
with certain tools, to converse with certain men, is a 
fortune in Europe ; and they who can command these 
advantages will be vigilant to keep out all intruders. 
The golden gift of opportunity therefore does not 
come to all ; and consequently the whole talent of a 
country is not ordered out. He who should be prefect 
is only constable, and he who should make tele- 
scopes is kept cleaning horses. A captain in the 
standing army has recently published in France a 
work in which he says : < The average wages of a 
day-laborer in France is twenty-five cents, and in the 
United States sixty-two cents. In France the tax on 
each person is six dollars and eighty cents ; while the 
same tax in the United States is three dollars and 
twelve cents.' Michael Chevalier, now professor 
of political economy in the University of France, says 
in his journal of travels in the United States, that 
< nothing surprises a stranger more, or lowers his 
national pride, if a European, than to see the general 
comfort pervading all classes.' And speaking of 
workmen, he has these words: 'Work,' says Ameri- 
can society to the poor man, < work, and in eighteen 
years you will gain more, you a simple day-laborer, 
than a captain does in Europe. You will live in plenty, 
you will be well clothed, comfortably lodged, and you 
will have many stores. Be assiduous in work, sober 
and religious, and you will find a wife devoted and 
respectful ; you will have a domestic hearth better 
furnished with comforts than that of the bourgeois of 
Europe. From being laborer you will become mas- 
ter ; you will have apprentices and servants ; in your 



36 

turn you will be manufacturer, or great farmer, and 
will end with becoming rich.' 

But it is not these high wages or agricultural pros- 
pects which make the most interesting fact on the 
subject before us ; it is the peculiar connection be- 
tween the laborer and the employer. In Europe the 
distance between these two persons is all but infinite ; 
while with us they are all but familiar companions. 
In Europe it is a connection of pure selfishness on both 
sides ; with us it is a union of kind feelings and gene- 
rous sentiments ; in the one case, of oppression and 
distrust ; in the other, of justice and confidence. The 
different effects upon a country which these different 
conditions produce, are great beyond computation. 
The loss is on the side of Europe ; the gain is on ours. 
The kingdoms of the old world have yet one foot in 
the middle ages ; we stand both feet in the new. It 
is the province of our country to set forth, in regard to 
labor, a bright example of Christian equity. Our pre- 
sent is the hoped future of semi-feudal Europe. We 
have not had, like them, to struggle through centuries 
of war and persecution in order to gain the two prizes 
of industry and peace. We began two hundred years 
ago in politics, about where they are now. We have 
nothing to undo ; they have almost every thing to 
reform. When they shall have adopted the highest 
Christian philosophy, which teaches us to regard all 
men as brethren, and introduced an improved organ- 
ization of labor, then they will establish schools to 
educate all their children ; thus giving to all both the 
ability and inclination to turn into the peaceful chan- 
nels of industry those energies, which for want of wise 
instruction and timely encouragement, are now wasted 
in profitless experiments or desperate crime. We are 



37 

aware that many object to providing instruction for the 
lower classes, from the fear of elevating them to an 
equality with their employers. To this objection Prus- 
sia, as we know, offers a conclusive refutation, it being 
there found that education, instead of rendering the 
poor either proud or disobedient, is the surest guaranty 
of their fidelity and submission. The fruits of the 
genuine tree of knowledge have often been analyzed, 
and no one yet has discovered poison in them. Happy 
will it be for the old world when it adopts the Ame- 
rican maxims on the subject of labor. It will put an 
end to that senseless logic by which some predict a 
fearful crisis between masters and servants. That 
time will never come if such maxims be adopted. 
Always will there be the rich and the poor, as inevit- 
ably as there will be the intelligent and the simple, 
the strong and the weak. The more the laboring 
classes are elevated, the more, some suppose, they will 
contend against the rich. We apprehend the exact 
reverse of this is the truth. The more they are pro- 
perly educated, the more will they respect themselves, 
and thus be led to respect others. They come to be 
veritable human beings, and cease to be circumstan- 
ces. Instead of declaring for social war, they would 
be foremost for peace. When all the poor are fitly 
educated, we shall see a yet more vigorous adhesion 
to the rights of property, for it will be the kind of right 
which one has to his own nerves and muscles. Let 
this fact be well weighed by those who predict social 
revolutions from the growing power of the laboring 
classes. Let these prophets be prepared for disap- 
pointment ; for be assured, the long labors and sacrifi- 
ces through which these classes must go to arrive at 
the proper revolutionary power, will have thoroughly 



38 

convinced them that they have nothing to gain, but 
every thing to lose, by a system of violent subversion. 
If society, either in America or Europe, promises in 
this respect any changes at present, we think they will 
be those of peace, health and enlargement, resembling 
that beautiful process in the animal kingdom, where 
some cast off their old skin only to grow larger in a 
new one. 

We have but a word to say on the other question 
we proposed to consider ; namely : What have the 
United States to fear from the kingdoms of Europe ? 
Little from their navies ; less from their armies ; little 
from their commercial competition ; less from their 
political creeds. But we must fear, watchfully and 
profoundly fear, their moral and political corruptions. 
To take but one example ; what Christian patriot 
would not mourn to see repeated in his own country 
the infamous proceedings of the last elections in Eng- 
land ? Bribery and crime were carried to their last 
limit by both parties, and even human life was wan- 
tonly sacrificed in the brutal conflict. It is the utter 
absence of all moral restraints and high religious prin- 
ciple in this transaction, which shows the real charac- 
ter of the electors. For two months the leading 
newspapers of the realm teemed with disclosures of 
treachery, venality and fraud. What must be the 
effect on the lower classes, who are not voters, when 
they see those above them giving themselves with an 
unquestioning abandonment to all the schemes of craft 
and ambition ? Sad will it be for the liberties of our 
republic when it goes across the Atlantic for political 
maxims on elections. The giving of a vote is a sacred 
act ; and if there be among men one individual who 
is, above all others, bound to make his vote expressive 



39 

of his own deep convictions of truth and patriotism, 
that individual is the citizen of a republic. 

We have also to fear the European vices of social 
life ; especially those prevailing in the great capitals. 
American parents send their sons to Germany or Paris 
to continue or complete their professional studies. 
There, unattended by any protector, they are exposed 
to temptations of the most fatal kind ; and though we 
have known many examples of assiduous study and 
exemplary moral conduct, yet we grieve to say there 
have been examples of a far different character. Un- 
less parents accompany their son, or are sure that his 
character is definitely formed, we advise them to keep 
him from the great cities of Europe. He treads on 
slippery rocks, while fiery billows roll below. 

We have much also to fear from the second-rate 
writers of Europe, who seem in the absence of greater 
luminaries to shine with captivating splendor. These 
legislators in the republic of letters, or rather these sub- 
marshals in the intellectual empire, are the authors of 
dramas and vaudevilles, poems and romances, often 
exhibiting great ingenuity, and occasionally some 
learning, and often also displaying the boldest defen- 
ces of immorality and revolution. Many of these find 
their way to our country, where they perform the part 
which the serpent did in Paradise. These are the 
writers who separate knowledge from virtue ; and in- 
stead of the sublime and heavenly principles of evan- 
gelical truth, they give you the cold syllogisms of 
skepticism ; instead of planting your foot on the Rock 
of Ages, they push you into that open sea of infidelity, 
whose winds are chance, whose waves are accident, 
and whose shores are annihilation. We wish our 
countrymen knew the private character of these 



40 

authors, and they would cease praising the beauties 
of their writings ; for their beauty is the rouge on a 
harlot's cheek. 

We have something to fear, also, in the possibility 
that our countrymen may separate science from re- 
ligion, and thus run headlong into the wildest dream- 
ings. Nothing gives such palpable definiteness to true 
religion as the results of science. He indeed sees 
God, who looks through nature up to Him. Every 
ray from the great luminary of science sheds light upon 
the neighboring provinces of religion ; and it gladdens 
the heart of the Christian philanthropist to read what 
the first astronomer in the world has lately said. The 
words of Sir John Herschel are these : ' The mo- 
ment seems to have arrived, the admirable moment of 
which our children gather the fruits, and which our 
fathers only foresaw, when Science and Religion, 
eternal sisters, join hands ; and when these noble sis- 
ters, instead of engaging in a deadly and dishonorable 
warfare, conclude together a sublime alliance. The 
more the field of true philosophy enlarges, the more 
its results favor religious belief; and the demonstra- 
tions of an eternal creative intelligence become numer- 
ous and irresistible. Geology, mathematics, astronomy, 
all have brought their contributions to the grand tem- 
ple of science, a temple elevated by Jehovah himself. 
All their discoveries coincide ; each new conquest of 
science is a new proof of the existence of God. We 
have come in our day to an all but perfect certitude on 
those great truths which Rome and Greece did not 
suspect, or could not foresee.' To borrow an illustra- 
tion from Sir John's favorite study, we would say, that 
science is bound to God as firmly as the systems to 
their centre. Every particle of matter is governed by 



41 

a fixed and immutable law ; and this law originates in 
God, and is science to man. To separate the law 
from its source, is to separate creation from its Creator, 
and to leave the universe an orphan. Gravitation says 
to every stellar system, to every rolling planet, and 
to every earthly atom, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
God with all thy heart and with all thy strength." 
Thou shalt be bound to him by an irresistible attrac- 
tion, thou shalt circle round his throne by a centre- 
seeking power, and shalt wait for him alone to change 
thy destiny. So every truth of science, circling the great 
universe, finds itself fastened at the footstool of Omni- 
potence. We devoutly hope that there may never be 
found in our country the mind that shall separate God 
and science ; but if, among intellectual motions, some 
centrifugal tendency may have propelled any original 
mind from the great central idea of God in science, 
may that mind soon discover its fatal mistake, and be 
convinced that it cannot find in the whole universe 
another perihelion ; for, we know, that mind, like 
matter, moves in the direction of its impelling force, 
and if the first impulse be given to it at the wrong 
point, unless its momentum be resisted and overcome 
by some opposing power, it will move onward in the 
path of error, and drive along its downward way with 
accelerated velocity, aided by the gravity of accumulated 
error, till it finally passes and is lost in dreary space 
beyond the affinity of centripetal forces. Let us then 
rest in the conclusion, that true science is unchanging 
and immortal; that it grows out of the relations which 
God himself has created, and that it stands forever as 
his own language, as his first revelation ; and let us 
moreover rejoice, that the grand majestic text of di- 
vine truth, which it utters, is written in characters into 
6 



42 

which time cannot eat, and which are preserved from 
age to age from all corrupt interpolations. Let us 
accordingly open our hearts to receive the sublime 
sentiment of Herschel ; let us believe that the laws 
of God extend with omnipresent power through the 
moral as through the physical world, and that Love 
is the great principle of gravitation in the spiritual 
universe which binds every devout mind to the central 
Source of life, wisdom and bliss. 

While, therefore, we are grateful to the philosophers 
and poets, the historians and divines of Europe, for 
their invaluable works in science, literature, and reli- 
gion, let us distinguish between things that differ, and 
henceforth not only borrow from all, but improve what- 
ever we appropriate. Our country must make its own 
character ; and if it would draw others within the 
sphere of its attraction, it must, free of all foreign dis- 
turbing influence, majestically decree its own orbit in 
time and space. While, therefore, we cordially pro- 
sent the right hand of fellowship to all true scholars 
and true patriots in both hemispheres, and hope the 
only rivalry or question among them all will be, which 
shall study most deeply the great problems of human 
nature and human government, of physical science and 
revealed religion, we may be allowed to hope for our 
own country that she may fulfil her mission to the 
world ; that she may be faithful to her great political 
creed, and faithful to her pious forefathers : then we 
cannot doubt her glorious future. We are sure that 
with the four stars of knowledge and virtue, liberty 
and peace, in her diadem, she will go on triumphantly, 
and settle down at last among the nations in the col- 
lected majesty of her power. 



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